File No. 837.6112/2.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
Habana, July 19, 1912.
In accordance with your telegraphic instruction of July 17, and in the language thereof, I addressed a personal note to President [Page 312] Gómez, who has just sent me a reply thereto of which the following is a translation:
My Dear Mr. Minister: I reply to your letter of yesterday addressed to me directly instead of through the Department of State—perhaps by way of unofficial advice or monition, for the protocol prescribes that Department as the channel of communication.
In that understanding, I wish only to tell you that Decree No. 556, of June 18 last, was issued in conformity with the laws in force in the exercise of the powers which those laws vest in me and in the fulfilment of my duty, on the strength of reports recommending such action as a measure in the interest of the salubrity of the territory involved and as highly beneficial to the country, in that it will bring about the cultivation of regions heretofore inundated and sterile.
The procedure resulting in the issuance of the decree has been long and minute, municipal and provincial authorities having reported favorably, as did also the Superior Board of Health; and the Government of Cuba has not wasted any revenues, nor granted realizable property, nor thrown away natural resources, but on the contrary will by its happy action convert an insalubrious and infected waste into an element of economic activity and national progress.
To bring into a state of production and to impart value to lands at present worthless has never anywhere in the world constituted, nor can it constitute, a loss or damage of any kind. The assertions to the contrary contained in your letter arise from a lack of knowledge of the necessary data of fact and law, or from ex parte statements of detractors or persons interested in creating a wrong impression. And doubtlessly attributable to these same causes is the frequent transmission through your Legation of contradictory advice to my Government concerning the work of its component branches in the same matter [sic].
I am, therefore, Mr. Minister, very far from believing that the project merits the condemnatory language of your letter.
On the other hand, Congress has requested, for investigation, and has been furnished with the administrative record; and any person whose interest may be unfavorably affected by the decree has recourse to the courts, which protect the rights of all. The Government of Cuba can not, in the exercise of powers inherent in the sovereignty of a free people, allow any supervision, interference or rectification [other] than that coming in proper form from either of those two branches, for the Platt Amendment and the Treaty which embodies it have no further scope than the following:
The Government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the Treaty of Paris on the United States now to be assumed and undertaken by the Government of Cuba.
This does not authorize or signify meddling [intromisión] in internal affairs, subjecting the acts of the administration to control or tutelage; for such a supervision or censorship would be destructive of the independence and dignity of the Republic, whose rights I can not allow to be restricted without incurring serious responsibility.
Just now the Government of which I am the head has shown its efficiency by preserving public peace and health in the face of rebellion and a fearful epidemic, and it fulfills all the obligations imposed by those pacts, which can not presuppose the renouncement of its power to legislate and administrate without the need of outside authorization or permission, nor the subordination of its judgment to extraneous orders, although coming from a nation to which Cuba is so fully grateful for its generous and correct conduct.
Nor did the Government of the United States help us to create the Republic in order later to despoil it of its sovereignty by systematic intervention in its internal affairs, interpreting the law of our mutual relations in the sense disclosed in the letter under reply, which would conduce to a régime incompatible with self-government and to a supervisory control not stipulated in our treaties.
And I have gone thus far into a discussion of the premises, Mr. Minister, because of your statement that you are acting in pursuance of instructions received from your Government. My Government defines the meaning and scope of the Platt Amendment and the Treaty of May 22, 1903, as these instruments would assuredly be defined by any jurisconsults who might examine their explicit text and by statesmen undesirous of violating our juridic status.
[Page 313]It affords me pleasure, my dear Mr. Minister, to renew to you the assurance of my highest consideration and respect.
José M. Gómez.
Besides the general tone of the above-quoted communication and the President’s astounding observations as to our Government’s rights in Cuba, in the original text there is a complete absence of the perfunctory polite phraseology so natural to the Spanish language and always hitherto employed by all members of the Cuban Government in their communications with me under all circumstances.
I respectfully call attention to the fact that tomorrow ends the thirty-day period of legal notice, and the President is likely to sign the contract immediately upon its termination, and urge that I be promptly instructed by telegraph.